


288. orphan

by piggy09



Series: The Sestre Daily Drabble Project [197]
Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Character Swap, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-13
Updated: 2017-01-13
Packaged: 2018-09-17 05:21:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9307109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/piggy09/pseuds/piggy09
Summary: Sarah Duncan, eight-year-old orphan, alone in the world but for all her distant copies. Even now she’s alone. Even now, she has to stay behind glass.The exception to this rule is sitting across the table from her, hands and feet cuffed together. When Sarah looks at her, she growls.





	

**Author's Note:**

> ...can you tell my goal is to just run through every possible variation of the two of them as proclones

Every time Sarah sees one of the others, her heart does a momentary flip – an ache, a sharp and specific pain that says: _family_. It’s been doing that since she was eight years old and Aldous Leekie showed her photographs of other girls with her face. Sarah Duncan, eight-year-old orphan, alone in the world but for all these paper dolls. Even now she’s alone. Even now, she has to stay behind glass.

The exception to this rule is sitting across the table from her, hands and feet cuffed together. When Sarah looks at her, she growls.

“Helena,” she says again, and stops. The woman across from her just starts growling louder the second Sarah starts talking, tugging fruitlessly at her handcuffs. Her eyes are rolling desperate. Sarah wants to brush her hair until it lies flat and let her use Sarah’s shower and wrap her in a bathrobe and keep her safe. It’s so disconcerting to have these feelings transplanted onto an actual person, not footage from a security camera or strands of hair attached to a file folder.

“Who are you,” says Helena. “Why are you different than the others.” Sarah can see the whites of her eyes, all the way around. She wants to say _there’s nothing to be frightened of_. She doesn’t know if that’s true.

“I told you,” she says patiently. “My name is Sarah. I’m your sister. We were separated at birth – our birth mother took you and fled, but had to abandon you to the church. I was raised here.” She pauses, swallows. Her voice gets softer. “We’ve been looking for you for a long time.”

Helena consider her. “You’re lying,” she says, and slumps down in her seat. “Dirty little liar lamb. I am the original. You are just a copy of me.”

“I have evidence,” Sarah says patiently. “Our DNA matches. We’re the only two clones who can have children. Did you know that? That you can have a child?”

Helena sinks down even lower. Her coat swallows her up; all Sarah can see are her distrusting eyes over the dirty green neck of it. Sarah feels suddenly conscious of her thousand-dollar dress, the bracelets on her wrists. She wants – to help, god, it’s banging at her ribcage how much she wants to help.

“You’re a mirror twin,” she continues. “Your heart is over here.” She presses the flat of her hand to the empty aching place across from her heart. “You’re my mirror, Helena. Please believe me.”

Helena just glares at her. “I am the original,” she says stubbornly. She’s stuck – it must be her programming, years of Prolethean nonsense pouring out of her mouth.

“You’re my sister,” Sarah says. “You don’t have to be alone anymore. I found you.”

Helena’s breath is rapid, heavy, in and out through her nose. Her eyes dart all around the room, like she’s looking for exits – impossible, with the handcuffs and the foot restraints, but that doesn’t stop her from rocking in her seat and tugging at her cuffs. Sarah recrosses her legs, swallows, keeps watching.

“I’m sorry,” she says quietly. “I know this must be frightening. I didn’t want…” she bites the inside of her lip, runs an anxious hand through her hair. Both of these are terrible habits. Both of these she wishes she could stop, but some place in her she thought was empty is twanging in sympathetic pain. Sarah’s sister is right here, across the table, and she’s scared. Possibly she’s been scared her whole life – Sarah has. They’ve both been scared and alone. She wants to remake the world so that they don’t have to be either of those things anymore.

The inside of her lip is stinging from how hard she’s biting down. With effort, she unclenches her teeth. In the silence she can hear the low growling of Helena’s stomach, the way her breath is a frantic panting.

“Are you hungry?” Sarah says. Helena’s eyes jerk towards her, dart away again. Sarah looks down at the desk. Her fingers are perfectly manicured. “I’m hungry,” she tells them. “I was going to order food, if you’d like some.”

“Yes,” Helena says, the word a desperate gulp.

“Alright,” Sarah says softly. She picks up the phone. Helena stares at her until she notices Sarah’s eyes on her; then she looks away again, elsewhere. But it’s a start. Sarah tells herself that it’s a start, and dials the phone.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please kudos + comment if you enjoyed! :)


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